Joe Biden's map

5/16/12 10:25 AM EDT

Previewing Vice President Joe Biden’s two-day Ohio swing, CNN’s Political Ticker takes note of Biden’s map — and how he's able to connect with white, working-class voters in a way that President Barack Obama hasn't been able to.

For all the chatter about his gaffe-prone ways, Biden's old-school campaign trail style and Rust Belt roots make him a asset with blue-collar voters in places like Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Vice President Joe Biden kicks off a two-day swing Wednesday through the eastern edge of the must-win battleground state of Ohio, an area that President Barack Obama is unlikely to visit this election year.

And while the vice president apologized to the president last week for seemingly jumping the gun on the issue of same-sex marriage, this trip is an illustration of just how valuable Biden is for Obama as he bids for a second term in the White House….

It's not an area friendly to Obama, said Paul Beck, professor of political science at The Ohio State University.

"These are areas of traditional Democratic strength, steel-working areas, areas with a lot of working-class Democrats from the old days. President Obama has not played well there," Beck explained.

Obama was soundly defeated by then-Sen. Hillary Clinton in southeast and eastern Ohio in the Democratic presidential primary in March 2008, and while he won the state by 5 percentage points over Sen. John McCain in the general election that November, he didn't perform as well in the eastern edge of the state.

"Part of the problem is that these tend to be more conservative Democrats. For some of them his race may be an issue, probably not among the younger ones but among some of the older voters. These tend to be depressed areas, with a lot of job loss over the past couple of decades. There are deeply entrenched pockets of unemployment and economic distress," Beck added.